Mum

I love my Mum. We get on really well, we like a lot of the same crafts so we appreciate one another's work, and we swim and shop together on Fridays.

But at the moment I am keenly aware of just how much I love her and rely on her, as we had a scary experience last week that resulted in my driving her to hospital because we weren't quite sure what was going on.

Now she's fine, and she's healthy and happy and pretty much back to normal, which is fantastic. But it's left me thinking about our relationship and all the things I need to learn from her.

I once gave her a card, for Mother's Day I think, and inside I wrote:

Dear Mum,

without you I'd be naked.

When we were kids Mum sewed most of our clothes. She has always been excellent at sewing and in those days it was much cheaper to make your own than to buy clothes, so she was being economical as well, which is typical of my Mum. She is one of the most practical people I know.

But I've since come to realise that if I didn't have my Mum around I'd be naked in a whole range of other ways as well. My Mum taught me how to be a Mum, really before I realised that I would need to know. I mean, I've known for a long time that I wanted children, but I didn't understand that my parents were teaching me how to be a parent, and that's really precious to me.

Not only that but I regularly rely on her advice on matters ranging from which dress I should choose for a wedding, to what this rash might be, to how to get Mars to stop wetting the bed - and can I just say her method for that worked flawlessly.

So she's not just my Mum, she's one of my closest friends.

I would be naked without her, and I am grateful for her.